The title may sound gimmicky but the result is fascinating. The brilliant German cellist Jan Vogler has collaborated with Dvorák scholar Michael Beckerman in devising a sequence which delves beyond Dvorák’s masterpiece. It starts with Leave me alone (‘Lasst mich allein’) from his Op 82 songs, which appears several times in the Concerto (backwards in one instance), culminating in the valedictory epilogue – Dvorák expressing grief at the death of his sister-in-law with one of her favourite songs. Vogler and Beckerman give identification points in the concerto recording.

The song is beautifully sung by Angelika Kirchschlager, and Vogler’s cello transcription follows the main work. Two Stephen Foster songs, the ever-popular Jeanie with the light brown hair and Wilt thou be gone love?, link Dvorák’s American influences to the concerto.

The Seven Gypsy Songs – three vigorously sung by Kirchschlager and four in lyrical cello transcriptions – illustrate the relationship between the Concerto finale and gypsy music. Needless to say, the ubiquitous Songs my mother taught me is included. Introductory notes, and Vogler interviewing Beckerman and Beckerman interviewing Vogler, are helpful.

Happily, the Concerto performance is a fine, dramatic one, with David Robertson drawing incisive playing from the New York Philharmonic. It is good to find Vogler following the pattern set by the great cellist with whom he studied, Heinrich Schiff (Philips, 9/93 – nla): where Rostropovich, Du Pré and Yo-Yo Ma are expansive in the first movement, Vogler, like Schiff, keeps his expressiveness under stricter control. There is ample warmth here, with the great meditative moments like the G sharp minor reminiscence of the second subject in the first movement and the final epilogue given full intensity. Schiff may convey greater depth but that is partly influenced by Sony’s decision to place Vogler further forward. A fine, illuminating issue in a crowded field of Concerto recordings.